The temperature measurement of heart tissue can be essential for a patient's safety, especially during high energy stimulation and ablation procedures in a heart operation. Usually a single temperature sensor is used to measure the local heat status at the tip of a catheter during cardiac ablation. Furthermore, during other electrophysiological (such as high-current stimulation) and hemodynamic cases, there is no method available for continuous temperature measurement and mapping of the heart and circulation system which may result in an over heating risk of the myocardium tissue, even unnecessary burning and permanent tissue damage.
Current cardiac hemodynamic and electrophysiological (EP) function monitoring utilize different kinds of approaches for patient signal/data conversion and acquisition, such as EP catheter for heart electrophysiological activity, pressure catheter for blood flow rate and cardiac output (CO) measurement, etc. However, there exist not enough methods and strategies for intra-cardiac tissue and blood temperature measurement and monitoring, except for single one tip-temperature monitoring during the ablation procedure. Cardiac temperature monitoring can provide more heart safety information as well as function estimation/evaluation, which can not be achieved using current hemodynamic and electrophysiological methods, such as the tissue safety during high-energy stimulation and acute myocardial ischemia (AMI) estimation/evaluation.